


Present from the Past

by intern_at_german_chapterhouse



Series: The Mechanic, the Hero and the Kind Soul. [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Pepper Potts, Best Friends, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Epic Friendship, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Happy, Harley & Peter & Morgan as siblings, Parent Pepper Potts, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter and MJ being cute, Sad and Happy, Siblings, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 22:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20713229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intern_at_german_chapterhouse/pseuds/intern_at_german_chapterhouse
Summary: Before Tony died, he finished something he had been working on for a while. Something he was planning on giving to the people most important to him.He wasn't there to give his presents away.Peter, Harley and Morgan celebrate Christmas together, with Pepper, Ned and MJ. With hot chocolate and snow ball fights. And with presents from each other and from Tony.





	Present from the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unfittingpuzzlepieces](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfittingpuzzlepieces/gifts).

> Yes, it's September. Yes this is a Christmas fic. Deal with it.  
I just felt like writing something happy and this idea has been in my head for so long now, I had to finally write it down.  
Plus, a friend of mine, unfittingpuzzlepieces, who used to read all my fics but refuses to read my newest works because they make her sad, just finished a paper and I wanted to cheer her up after these stress inducing days: I promise, this won't make you sad. (Or at least I hope it won't….)

The day Tony figured out time travel he went to go join the rest of the Avengers in their quest to bring back the people Thanos had killed.  
But before he did that, there were some things to do.  
He recorded a message, just in case something went wrong.  
He said goodbye to his daughter without her realizing that he was.  
And he had to talk to Pepper.

But even after he got through all of that Tony wasn't done yet.  
He had to prepare something. Something he had been working on for months, without even knowing if half of the people he was doing it for would even be alive by the time he finished. And they weren't. Not yet.  
But if this thing the next day worked, they would be. And he could give them their presents.  
But just in case he didn't make it back he labeled each of the boxes in the drawer. There was one box for Morgan and one for Pepper. One for Harley, for Peter, and one for Rhodey.  
Each one with a small bow and their name written on top.  
He was planning on giving the boxes away right after everyone was returned the next day. But just in case, FRIDAY was instructed to let Pepper know about them in 24 hours. Just in case.

On the battlefield, Tony only realized that 24 hours had passed when Pepper showed up in her suit. She must have found the box with her name on it.  
On one hand he was glad that she did, on the other he wished that she was at home, safe. But his suit did what he had designed it to do and protected her, and Pepper was amazing. They fought together and it was clear to everyone who saw them that they were the perfect team.  
And when his mind drifted off, right after he turned off the arc rector on his chest for the last time, Tony remembered the boxes and the people they were meant for.

Pepper was right.  
They'd be okay.

He might not have been able to put an armour around the entire world but he managed to shield his world.

_“I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,...”_ The radio crackles a bit but May and Ned just keep singing, motioning for MJ and Peter to join them. Peter is too busy staring out the window, wondering if there will be snow this year or if they'll have to keep dreaming. Plus he's holding hands with MJ which still feels new and exciting and takes up a lot of his attention.

Peter and Harley had started to talk about celebrating Christmas together as a joke. They both had family so they probably wouldn't be able to stay with Pepper and Morgan over Christmas even if they wanted them there.  
But then Pepper invited both of them and their families along.  
Harley's mom and sister didn't take her up on her offer but told Harley that he wouldn't get any gifts if he didn't accept Pepper's invitation.  
Since the Keeners wouldn't come, Pepper invited MJ and Ned too, so the weekend will probably be the best weekend EVER.  
May offered to drive them but won't be staying with them. Happy invited her to stay with him and they'd join the others for dinner on the 25th.

When they get to the house, the door flies open and Morgan comes running at them the way she always does. She jumps up into Peter's arms and hugs him back. He puts her down and she waves at MJ and Ned and goes to hug May too.  
They spend the afternoon and night playing games, listening to music and eating popcorn. Pepper makes them hot chocolate and pretends not to see that Harley snuck in a bottle of eggnog the four older children keep drinking from whenever they think Pepper isn't watching them.

The boys refused to sleep in their room and let MJ and Ned sleep on the couches so when Pepper comes downstairs on Christmas Eve, they're all laying on mattresses in the living room. Pepper can't help but smile at them. Peter and MJ are holding hands and she can imagine that MJ would never confess to liking this cute little PDA. But the girl is smiling in her sleep and Pepper thinks she looks very at peace with the hand holding.

The smells of bacon and coffee (probably mostly the coffee, these four are not healthy teenagers, they basically live off of coffee most of the time) wakes first Peter, then Ned and then MJ. The three come stumbling into the kitchen, their hands reaching out for the first cup of coffee, while Harley mumbles to himself about those damn early birds.  
After a few silent minutes in the kitchen, filled only by the sounds of coffee-drinking and bacon-cooking, Morgan comes running down the stairs, straight at Harley and jumping onto is back. He cries out and turns around under her, pulling her down into a tight hug.  
“You monster!”  
“Come on, Harley! It's 9 am!”  
“Exactly!”  
Begrudgingly, Harley joins the others in the kitchen and they all sit down to eat.  
Morgan tells them about her dream (unsurprisingly it's about Christmas), something they've been doing since October. Pepper doesn't really know why they started talking about their dreams so much, but she's pretty sure it has something to do with those horrible nightmares Peter used to have. Well, if it makes them happy, she won't stop them from talking about Santa Claus riding in a pink and bright orange space ship, because how else is he supposed to get everywhere so fast?  
When the kids start calculating how fast Santa would have to be to get to every house around the globe, Pepper gets up and leaves. On her way to the stairs she hears MJ say something about how Santa only visits Christian children and children growing up in capitalist and/or mostly Christian countries, while Ned reminds them to think of time zones and that Santa doesn't have to be everywhere at the same time. Shaking her head, Pepper makes her way up to the study, there are some things at Stark Industries she has to take care of before being able to spend the next few days ignoring every kind of responsibility.  
But mostly, she's leaving, because she knows what Tony would have said, had he been down there. He would have reminded them to not forget different practices of celebrating Christmas either. That in some countries they celebrate on Christmas Eve for example. And then he would have started to research where Christmas was celebrated, and on which day, and whether they opened presents at night or in the morning. All so that their hypothetical equation gets as concrete as possible.  
Before she can start crying, Pepper sighs and sits down at her desk. For now, she'll just focus on work.

Ned puts away the tablet they've been writing on. Their calculation is as good as it's gonna get, so they decided to put a rest to the Santa-time-question.  
“Guys, look!” Morgan jumps off her chair and points out the window. “It's snowing!”  
And sure enough, there are white flakes falling on the grass outside.  
The five children in the kitchen look at each other and within seconds, they're all at the door. Peter is on the ceiling and the first to be in reach of the doorknob. He shoots a web and pulls the door open, shoots another web and swings outside while the others push through the door. Harley stops in the door frame, trying to stop the others from getting outside but Morgan slips through between his legs and Ned just pushes Harley outside. Because Ned used too much force, Harley and he are tumbling to the floor and MJ is outside before them.

Morgan is standing under the snow, her arms stretched out to both sides, her face turned to the sky, her eyes closed, she's slowly turning around her own axis. Peter is still up in the tree he swung out into and MJ stopped right at the foot of the porch steps. They're both watching Morgan and remember what it felt like enjoying the snow like that.  
With a single look at Peter, MJ stretches out her arms and turns the way Morgan is still doing. Peter jumps down and takes MJ's hands and then they turn together. Ned and Harley join them, turning on their own though.  
They can't see her, but Pepper is watching them from the study's window, five kids enjoying the first snow of the year on Christmas Eve. Their hair turns white and their pyjamas wet and they just keep running around in the snow.  
  
After a while Morgan starts to get cold and they run back inside and make some more hot chocolate (Pepper definitely will have to get more soon) and warm back up.  
Then they get out some more games and play for a while, looking outside every few minutes. It looks like there's a white wall right outside the window, that's how much it's snowing now.  
For lunch, Pepper makes them change out of their pyjamas and then lets them eat grilled cheese.

They have to finish a game of Monopoly and almost forget that there's snow outside. But when Peter finally wins, MJ, who refused to play with them and was sitting on the couch reading and watching them, says: “It's sunny outside.”  
And the race to the door begins anew, with exactly the same outcome. Peter, being the first outside, is also the first to through a snow ball. It hits Harley right in the face just as he gets back up from where Ned and he landed on the porch. All of them yell “OOOOH” at the same time and laugh at Harley's weird face.

The snow ball fight is briefly interrupted by Pepper telling them to put on something warmer. They all groan but hurry inside and back to the garden as fast as they can.  
Peter is the first outside again (he didn't have to take the stairs because he always leaves the window in their upstairs room unlocked and can climb through it and jump back out) and just stands there for a second. Everything is clothed in light. White blankets cover the house and the trees and the lake's shores. The lake isn't frozen, and it probably won't, it's not that cold. But the sun shines and everything reflects the light. It's beautiful.  
Harley comes up from behind and pushes him. Peter could have easily kept his balance but he just falls down, shooting a web back up at Harley and pulls him to the ground. They're still rolling around on the floor when Morgan comes barrelling out the door and just jumps right in.  
When MJ and Ned join them outside, they restart their snow ball fight.

After throwing snow balls for hours and taking out the sleigh they found in the garage (according to Morgan they weren't supposed to rummage around in there but before they could get out MJ found the sleigh and they just had to take it), Ned follows Harley and Morgan inside, throwing MJ and Peter a glance and winking stupidly. Peter rolls his eyes and MJ groans.  
But they're kind of happy to be alone for a few seconds. It started snowing again and there are white crystals in MJ's hair and her cheeks are red from the cold and her eyes sparkle. She looks beautiful and Peter can't help but smile at her.  
MJ looks as if she's about to say something about his goofy grin, but instead she just smiles too and pulls him closer to her. Peter holds her close with one arm and cups her face with the other. Her skin is cold at first but hot underneath. While getting closer to her face, Peter feels his smile get even wider and slowly kisses her.  
Snow flakes fall down on them and Peter feels like there's no way he could be happier than this.

Pepper is the first to wake up on Christmas morning. She fell asleep on the couch with Morgan next to her, but the girl is gone. Now she's laying between Peter and Harley on the mattresses on the floor.  
They wanted to stay awake and wait for Santa. Pepper wasn't sure if she should tell the others that Morgan knows there is no Santa Claus, but her daughter never mentioned it so she decided to just let them have their fun while pretending it was for Morgan's sake.  
But still she wants to have the presents under the tree before the kids wake up. Luckily they were all tired when they went to bed (snow ball fights and sledding are exhausting) so neither of the five kids wakes up when she quietly puts the presents where they belong and makes some breakfast.  
Only when the waves of pancake-and-coffee-smell hit the living room, Peter wakes up and turns to the kitchen door. His stirring wakes Morgan and MJ on both of his sides, and them waking up awakes Harley and Ned in turn. Harley complains about wanting to sleep just five minutes more, but the others are already up, running around. Most of them brought presents for at least a few others, which they have to go get and put under the tree too.  
Morgan wants to open the presents first but Pepper tells them to sit down first and eat their pancakes. They all basically inhale them and wash it all down with coffee. Pepper sighs but follows the horde back to the living room.  
They take turns opening presents. Morgan goes first. She gets a popcorn machine from Peter and Harley just starts laughing. Apparently he built the exact same robot for her too. “That's okay, I'll just put one in my room and one in the living room!” Morgan beams.

Morgan drew pictures for all of them. They're kind of horrible as most pictures drawn by little kids are. But her drawings focus on details, small things most people would leave out of rough paintings. The small mole on Peter's chin, Pepper's laugh lines, the strand of hair thqt never follows the rest of Ned's hairdo, Harley's crooked smile and MJ's necklace are drawn carefully in comparison to the rest of their faces. But also the backgrounds are full of details.  
All of them take a long time looking at their pictures. Morgan's Ned is sitting in front of two big computer screens – the Guy in the Chair. Peter is swinging from a building with a little girl in his arms. Harley's picture-self is talking to DUM-E (_“Doun't worry about droping the cup”_) surrounded by other tech. In her picture, MJ is sitting in an arm chair with a book in her one hand, her other hand his holding onto a cup of tea. Pepper is sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of the house at the lake.  
The picture with Pepper in the background took Morgan the longest. Because in it, her mom is sitting in front of a window and Morgan drew herself, Peter and Harley sitting around a table inside.

Peter got MJ a few books he from a second hand store in Queens she loves going to.  
MJ refused to buy gifts for anyone but Morgan. But the little girl promises to give the others some of the chocolates MJ got her.  
Ned and Peter got each other phone cases wth their faces on. One picture is more terrifying than the other, but they love it.  
With a sly smirk, Harley gives Peter his gift: a coupon for fixing his suit if he ever can't figure out a problem himself. But Peter just smiles and thanks him, handing him his present: an old web shooter he upgraded. With it, Harley should be able to swing a few meters. Harley always wanted to try Peter's shooters but they're designed for someone with his strength, not a human's, but the one Peter gave him will make up for what Harley lacks in strength.

None of them expected Pepper to get them a gift. They got together and payed for a bottle of good wine, some pralinés and a winter rose. But they never thought she'd give them something.  
When all the other gifts are exchanged and the CD of Christmas songs stopped because they've listened to all of them (FRIDAY could have played thousands more of Christmas songs, but Pepper has put this particular CD on every Christmas since she got it when she was young), Pepper gets up and pulls five boxes out from under the tree: three smaller ones and two slightly larger boxes.  
She gives the larger boxes to Ned and MJ. Ned opens his first and takes out a blue sweater and a gift coupon for an electrics shop in Queens. He thanks Pepper and starts telling her about all the stuff he's been wanting to get while MJ opens her present. She's smiling just the tiniest bit when she unfolds the purple sweater and takes out the gift voucher for the book store she loves so much. Her soft-spoken “Thank you” is almost drowned out by Ned's never ending list of gadgets he wants to get to be a better Guy in the Chair if Peter ever needs him to be. But Pepper hears MJ and answers with a small smile and a nod.  
When Ned is finally done, Pepper takes a deep breath and then hands out the smaller boxes to Harley, Peter and Morgan.  
They all open them at the same time. Morgan pulls a necklace out of her box with a small Arc reactor replica on it. There are more small Arc reactors in the box left but only one pendant on the chain. Peter's box contains a black bracelet and Harley's a wrist watch. The older boy has to laugh when he sees the small picture of Dora the Explorer on the clock face.  
“These are from Tony, aren't they?”  
Pepper nods. “Yeah. He finished those the day he...”

Silence surrounds the group of people sitting on the living room floor.  
Morgan pulls the necklace over her head until the Arc reactor rests right on top of her heart. After watching her, Peter puts on his bracelet and Harley his watch.  
Peter's bracelet is completely black with a tiny charm in the middle: a matte black Spiderman-emblem. Slowly, he traces his fingers over the wristband until he reaches the emblem. He pushes down on it and suddenly the bracelet begins to move. It's as if the small band is expanding, encasing Peter's entire arm. And then it covers him entirely. Peter is smiling under the mask even before the AI starts speaking. Because he knows who's voice he's about to hear.  
“Hey Pete.”


End file.
